More mature age students enrol in universities as Australia’s over25s further their education

Sydney: Mature age students are increasingly filling Australia’s universities and the adult learners are not just graduates studying for a master’s degree or PhD, they are stepping into the world of academia for the very first time. From 2011 to 2016 there were an extra 90,000 students above the age of 25 enrolled at university, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Around two out of every five of those students had not yet already received a bachelor’s degree.

Shifting gears and swapping careers Criminology lecturer Adam Masters came to academia after 24 years in the public service.

His current discipline typically skews older, but in 2003 when he lined up to enrol at university he was surrounded by young people.

“I was old enough to be their father,” Dr Masters said.

Dr Masters started his bachelor’s degree while teaching at the Australian Federal Police College.

“It was sort of doing adult learning and being an adult learner at the same time so it was an interesting mix,” he said.

“I decided then and there that I wanted to continue doing that for the rest of my life.

It was a difficult decision for Dr Masters to give up his job with the Australian Federal Police, but his new career has figuratively and literally broadened his horizons. “I never would have pictured myself in Red Square in Moscow or in China,” he said.